It's Only Been Forever
by EphemeralHeartbeat
Summary: "We can't act like it never happened," Cyborg said, keeping his eyes locked on me. "He's still the enemy. He's still working for Slade." :: Ep. How Long Is Forever? :: Sladin. Nightwing/Deathstroke. Future Fic. AU-ish. Two-Shot.
1. Chapter 1

**This is based off of the Episode: How Long Is Forever? and for thoes of you who don't remember what happened in it, i have a summery at the bottom.**

 **Anyway, this is basically just a way of me explaining why Nightwing looks 23 when everyone else seems to be well into their fifties, and why a place as warm as Jump is snowing. With a big center dash of Sladin.**

 **Unlike in the Show, this is thirty five to forty years in the future, not twenty.**

* * *

I slid up behind Slade's chair, wrapping my arms around his neck and stretching in front of him to close his laptop. His skin was cold to the touch, something I knew was caused by the fact that he's been sitting in his room without the heater on for hours. The concrete floors were frozen against my bare feet, and my skin was dotted with goosebumps from just standing there. He scoffed, not surprised by my interruption, and gave me a look of amusement and slight annoyance. I rubbed his shoulders in slow, teasing movements, chewing on his neck softly.

"I take it the mission went well?" He asked.

I ran a hand through my cold, wet hair, inching the other one down his chest and nuzzled the side of his face. "Very," I said and licked his ear. I pulled his button down shirt out from his pants, and proceeded to unbuckle his belt. He shifted in his seat, causing the chair to creak under his weight, and turned his head until his hot breath was escaping his mouth in hot little breaths on my cheek.

He raised an eyebrow and gave a chuckle. "And what, precisely, do you believe you're doing?" He didn't react to the hand I slipped in his pants, instead choosing to turn back around and open his laptop again.

I clamped down on his neck, my teeth leaving marks in his skin, hoping to get some reaction from him. He typed in his password. Sometimes… Sometimes I swear there was nothing more he wanted than to make me hate him. I pressed my chest harder against the back of his chair, knowing he would feel the pressure, even if not directly, and stroked his soft shaft, rolling my eyes. "What does it look like I'm doing?" I murmured. "C'mon Slade, take a break. You've been at this all week. That mission was amazing, and I'm _hard_. I want something."

"I believe I've mentioned it before: sexual stimulation during your assignments make you reckless," He pulled my hand out from his pants, and I let out a shameless whine. His hands returned to the keyboard, and I made sure to avert my eyes. Respecting his privacy has always gotten me rewarded, not punished. Not that it wasn't tempting. "You know I don't tolerate it."

I licked his neck to distract myself, choosing to use my hand myself. I was aroused and fresh out of the shower after a week-long torture mission. Just because he didn't want to get off doesn't mean I was going to let him ruin my fun. "I know," I said, and laughed. "But I thought you _wanted_ me to like it."

"And now you do," He replied. "So I expect you to show self-control, Richard."

I moaned at my name, palming myself harder. He loved to ruin my fun, didn't he? "Just this one time, Slade," I panted. "I haven't gotten this hard over a kill in so long." I used my free hand to turn his head sideways, giving him a big, open-mouthed kiss. He parted his lips, letting my inside, and I used it to my full advantage.

He snorted as soon as I pulled away. "We have more important things to attend to."

I paused for a second, catching my breath. "Like what?" I managed. I was tempted to turn on the heater because super-human or not, we were going to freeze in this temperature, but it was on the other side of the room, and if I manage to get Slade into bed, he might be warm enough, right? "Would it happen to be that super-top-secret thing you've been fiddling with this whole time?"

"Yes, It would happen to be that-" He frowned, and I laughed, "'super-top-secret thing' I've been observing. After a few tests, I've determined that it is indeed her."

"Who?" I lowered my head so my forehead rested against his shoulder, and started stroking myself again, slowly.

"That Tamaranian you were once so fond of," He said. "Starfire, I believe her name was?" He said it like a question, but I knew he remembered her name perfectly.

I lifted my head, pulling my hands out of my pants. "Kori?" I said in surprise. Gosh, of course he brought this up now, because mentioning the girl I had a crush on in high school while I was stone-hard was definitely the ultimate turn-off. "I thought she was dead."

Slade hummed, looking at his laptop screen. It was filled with pictures of her, not a day older than how I remember, walking the empty streets of jump in her short skirt and top. There were tears streaming down her face, and she hugged herself like she could actually get cold. There was something gold and round strapped on her belt. "I believe your words were-"

"-Lost in time," I corrected myself before Slade finished his sentence. "How long has she been here for?"

"I can't be certain," Slade's eyes narrowed. "Perhaps a couple weeks? Three at most. It seems she is searching for the Titans. She's already found the others."

"That must have been disappointing," I mused.

"So that means she must be looking for you," He said. "You are the last one she hasn't seen yet."

I buried my nose in his hair, taking deep breath. The things he does for his children- his hair still smelled like strawberries from the time Grant and Rose had teamed up on him last month. After that, I've never been able to look at a jar of jam in the same way. The smell didn't fit him at all, but the memory made me smile.

"Why are you bringing this up?" I asked, the smile slowly sliding off. He would only bring this up if he had something in mind. Nothing had the reasoning of 'Just because' when it came to Slade. Hell, even his fridge magnets have some deep, complicated philosophical reasoning behind it. I took out his ponytail, and started to braid his hair. He glared, but said nothing. He'd bitch about it tomorrow in training, but at the moment, I didn't care.

"I simply thought you would enjoy being informed about her presence," He said, placing a fist under his chin and resting on it. His elbow pushed the laptop a couple centimeters back, and I raised an eyebrow.

"So..?"

He looked at me as if I were an idiot. I thought those looks would decrease the longer I knew him, but I was wrong. "So," He said, "If you wish, you may do something with this information." He got up, gesturing to the chair and unlocked laptop. "Or you may do nothing. On the condition that you come back to me, of course."

"Of course," I repeated. This was a test, maybe? Choice of loyalty? He hasn't played one of those on me in years, but I didn't put it below Slade to suddenly pick up his old habit again. But what did I do to make him distrust me? "But why?"

Slade chuckled and walked around me, snaking his arms around my waist from behind. He poked at my cheek with his nose, and I turned my head to be pulled into a soft, gentle kiss. "Because," He said, "It's about time you started to fly on your own, my apprentice. Although I won't let you go too far from the nest just yet, you'll be expected to start making some of your own decisions. Is that understood?"

"Yeah," I said. Does that reasoning make sense? Am I looking too deeply into this? Probably, but I was still suspicious.

"'Yes,' what?" He pushed, raising an eyebrow. His hands ran over my hips, and went back up to my chest to give me a little squeeze, and I laughed.

Forget about tests and whatnot. I'll think about that later. I pecked him on the lips. "I thought you weren't in the mood," I said.

"I said I won't tolerate sexual stimulation during your assignments," He corrected me. "Not once did I mention not being 'in the mood'." He dipped his head to give my neck a kiss before raising it again and saying, "So it would be, 'Yes,' what?"

I closed the laptop and turned around in his arms, wrapping my own around his neck. I flushed our bodies together and tiptoed- even after taking the perfected soldier serum, he was a good head taller than me- until our breaths were mingling. I let him rest his hands on my ass, and I brought one leg up around his waist, grinding against him.

"Yes, Master," I whispered, and let him pull me into bed.

* * *

 **Ep. Recap: after Star yells at the team because they were all fighting with each other, Star accidentally travels to the future. Because she did this, between the time she left to the time she landed, the Titans have had to live without her. Cyborg lives alone in the tower, Best Boy is in a sad one-man circus, and Raven is...**

 **She just is.**

 **Robin, now Nightwing, really isn't expanded on much, but he seems to have moved on without her or the team. Anyway, the Titans have basically fallen apart. They end up regrouping to help Star get home, fight Warp (?) (and turned him into a baby), who was the reason she traveled to the future in the first place and she goes back home. And they Celebrate the alien day of friendship.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Go back," I whispered, holding Star's hands close to the symbol on my chest. "Change the past. Make sure none of this happens. We'll be a team again, with you." I gave her a small smile despite the ache in my chest, and even though Star looked weak and uncertain, she nodded. She was brave and strong, just like I remembered her. Her hair was brilliant, her eyes filled with so much innocence and hope. There were tears in them, but she stepped through the portal anyway, clutching the stolen artifact so tightly I was sure that it would crack.

She reminded me of a happiness so sweet and so innocent, I had almost forgotten it existed. But I couldn't go back to that. Happiness like that, it came with a price. Maybe others were okay with that, but the happiness I've found now… it's dark and twisted, exhilarating and enlightening… and it's completely for free. The happiness she showed me again, the one she practically represented, it was an addiction. And it hurt too much when it was taken away. I learned that the hard way.

The portal closed behind her, and the former Teen Titan team and I stood there for a second. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath, waiting for something. Maybe we had all thought that everything would change for us; that her return would have altered our memories, corrected the wrongs of our world. There was nothing. I sighed in relief. Nothing, because just as I had thought, her return only created a different time stream. That meant ours' hadn't changed at all.

Cyborg creaked behind me, and I turned around. All of them looked so tired, so old. The weight of the years were straining their shoulders. Starfire, just as she always had before, gave them hope; hope for a new life, new meaning. Usually that hope didn't let them down. It looked like this time it did. I smiled.

"Well," Beast Boy started, and I winced at the croak and slight shake in his voice. "That was fun, but I'm getting old. This is gonna cause some serious joint pain!"

My smile widened. Of course no matter what Beast boy had gone through, he still had that weird little personality. He looked exhausted, and the balding head didn't go unnoticed, but that twinkle in his eye was there, just like always.

A big metallic hand rested on Raven's shoulder, but she said nothing. From what I heard, she didn't say much anymore. Her face was covered in shadows and instead of that neutral line her mouth always seemed to settle in when we were just teenagers, she had a frown. Cyborg shone brilliant blue again just like he once did, and glared at me.

"You didn't tell her, did you?" He asked gravely. That managed to take the twinkle out of Beast Boy's eyes, and Raven's frown deepened. I stopped smiling.

Beast Boy gave a small cough, "Do we really have to mention this-?"

"We can't act like it never happened," Cyborg said, keeping his eyes locked on me. "He's still the enemy. He's still working for Slade." Raven growled at this. Cyborg tightened the grip on her shoulder, "The fact that he helped Star get home doesn't change a thing."

"I'm betting you wish it had," I scoffed softly. I compacted my bo-staff, hooking it on my belt. "You wouldn't have bothered otherwise, right?"

"We did it because she's a part of our family," Raven said. "There's nothing we can do to change anything for us now. If no one else could be happy, she had the right to."

" _I'm_ happy," I said. "There's a bigger world out there, you know. With people, and things like coffee and doughnuts. You don't have to stay here and brood in one-man circuses about the things you couldn't do." I grabbed the Titan communicator, dropping it on the floor and crushing it under my heel. It was only useful for one call, anyway. I just wasted it. "I know that things got hard when Jump got destroyed-"

"You helped him do that," Beast Boy reminded me. That seemed to open a world in his head that reminded him of all the other pretty little bad things I've done, and he took a step back, away from me.

I glared. "I was stupid, back then. And Slade was going through a hard time-"

Cyborg scoffed. "I don't recall anything being bad enough to commit genocide." He pulled Raven closer to him. "And I don't recall you having any valid reason to help him."

"The point is," I continued, "Jump got destroyed and the attempt at reversing Global Warming threw the world into eternal winter. A lot of people died. There's no more Gotham, just like there's no more Jump, just like all the other cities that withered away when the cold hit." Warp started to cry, and Raven seemed to debate whether she could turn her back to me before she did just that to pick him up from the cold floor. "There are still people, though. While you guys are wasting away, people out there are rebuilding. Whether you like it or not, the world is going to move on _without_ you if you don't get off your asses and rejoin them."

Raven slowly took off her hood. "Let it go on without us. I'd rather be here, alone, than be out there when your boss decides to take advantage of the situation."

I rolled my eyes. "Been there, done that." I turned around. "World domination isn't really his type. Besides, maybe you should be out there keeping the threat of world domination in _check_. With half of the JLA gone, we all know they'll need help restraining Savage."

"Could be saying the same about you," Cyborg said.

I paused, raising an eyebrow. "The world domination, or the keeping said threat in check?" I spun on my heel to face them again. "Like I just said, not really his type. And by 'him', I mean 'us'."

"We realized that," Raven said. "We meant that you could be helping."

"I am," Nightwing said. "It's hard to get jobs if everyone who would be willing to hire us don't have money. Even Lex is tight on his bills. No people, no work. If we help with the rebuilding process, we get more customers, and we get paid. Simple."

Beast boy shuffled slightly. "Is that really the only thing you care about now? Money? What happened to you, man?"

I scoffed. A lot, actually. I had gotten tired. I had given so much to a world that only seemed to hate. I've watched people I love die, and I've watched them come back. I've seen them broken; seen them contemplate a death that they discovered had nothing other than darkness. What was life worth if there was no heaven or hell waiting for you after? What does life mean if it doesn't mean anything once you're gone? What was the point in trying if you're going to die anyway?

"Stuff," I said. "And this isn't about money. It's about _honor_ . If money is the way that it's shown now in days, so be it. I'm not going to complain. Keeps me fed, keeps me clean."

I waited for a response, but none presented itself. I started to walk towards the exit, confident enough that none of them would attack me from behind. They didn't have the heart. They always let prejudice lead their way. There was no book as to what was right and what was wrong when it came to them. Just feelings and gut-instincts.

I was opening the door when I heard Raven ask, "Why Slade?"

I turned around again, giving them one of my infamous smirks. "Why not?" I said, and made note of showing them how I hooked on Warp's tech on my belt. Cyborg's eyes widened, because I had swiped it straight from his hands , but I was gone and hidden out of their sights before he could finish saying, "Hey!"

The only sound after that was Warp's crying, and I chuckled to myself. Slade would be proud.


End file.
